Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Sigh. I have been frustrated, since last Thursday, by being unable to achieve anything of any satisfaction or import whatsoever that involved leaving the house. And yet, even though I have been doing nothing except dealing with the most banal necessities of life, I have had no time to do anything such as, for example, write more. It's amazing how much time and energy it takes to be stir-crazy.

However, yesterday saw some definite improvements in the snow situation, and I think that today I might actually get at least some portion of my normal life back. At which point I will undoubtedly start complaining about how busy I am am and how I have no time to stay quietly at home. Because that's just how I am, apparently.

Monk very carefully navigated my car downtown last night, and we saw Frost/Nixon. There were exactly three other patrons in the theater. Apparently not many people were willing to brave the ice-slick sidewalks to watch ninety minutes of two men talking.

However, we liked it. The whole cast did nicely, but Frank Langella did a masterly turn as Tricky Dick. You got a sense, that I had never seen before, that Nixon had a bizarre, slightly intimidating charm. Perhaps not charm, exactly, but something that attracted you, even as it made you uneasy. Not sexy - no, never that. But a personal power, and something compelling. I kept watching Langella, remembering him as the 1979 Dracula. This was in some way a negative image of that character. In both roles, there's a depiction a man who has power, and who is willing to be savage in the pursuit of more, and who feels justified by his circumstances in doing so. But Nixon is not a romantic figure to anyone, perhaps because of his unease, his palpable dislike, for most people.